Golf Balls

By Eric Geier

Golf is one of the world’s oldest sports, and it is a sport that is always evolving as new technology is always emerging that will make the golf ball go further or make the golf ball more accurate. The golf ball has gone through many transformations since the sport was invented in Scotland in the 1400s. The first golf balls were actually stone or wooden balls that players would find or carve themselves until skilled craftsmen took over the task of creating perfect balls. The first major innovation came in the 1600s when the “feathery” ball was invented. The feathery ball was a stitched outer casing of leather or other material which was then stuffed with goose or duck feathers. The casing was stuffed with feathers until it was as hard as a rock or stone. This type of ball sustained players for over 200 years, but there were problems with the ball that no one seemed to be able to solve. If playing in poor weather (which a player often did in rainy Scotland or England) the ball would become mutilated, losing its spherical shape and maybe even bursting open when it was hit by a club.

In 1848, another breakthrough in golf ball technology came along. Reverend Adam Paterson of the infamous St Andrews golf club invented the “gutta percha” or the “gutty” ball. It was called the gutty because it was created from the gutta tree, which is found in tropical areas of the world. The gutta tree produces a sap and when it is heated it can be molded into a golf ball. When it dried, players found that the ball went further and straighter than any other ball they had played with. They also found that “bramble patterns” put into the ball would enhance its ability to travel through air, similar to the dimples we see on golf balls today. After the gutty was invented the sport of golf reached new destinations worldwide, mainly due to the new means of travel like the train and the steam ship.

At the turn of the century, rubber was a new material that people were using because it could be easily melted and molded. In 1900, Coburn Haskell from Cleveland, Ohio invented the Haskell rubber-cored ball, which was wound up rubber yarn with a gutty sap outer coating. This ball exploded onto the scene and was said to travel an average of 20 yards longer than the previous gutty ball. The ball became legendary in 1902 when Alexander “Sandy” Herd won the British Open using the same Haskell rubber-cored ball for the entire tournament. The last major innovation came in 1905 when the first dimpled ball was introduced. This was different from past designs because the way the dimples were laid out on the ball were perfectly symmetrical, allowing for greater speed and lift on the golf ball as it traveled. A couple of decades later, around 1920, the gutty sap outer layer began to fade as a new, better outer layer of “balata” was being used. Balata is a tree usually located in Central America and the Caribbean that produces natural latex. The golf ball stayed this way until the early 1970s when sporting goods extraordinaire, Spalding, introduced the first multi-layer ball.

Today, all golf balls are layered, sometimes consisting of as many as four layers. There is a solid, titanium or pressurized core. The core is the base of the ball and is almost always a strong material. The core is then wound in rubber, which is coated with a softer synthetic material. Over the years scientists have discovered that a softer outer shell and a harder core will make the ball travel further, faster and more accurately.

The majority of professional players have their golf balls custom made or have custom designs on them. For example, Greg Norman used to have a little shark on his ball and Arnold Palmer had a golden bear on his ball. Sometimes players will hand mark the balls with a marker before play. These custom balls are valuable to fans and collectors, because many times, the only way to obtain one is to have one given to you personally by a player at a tournament. If you buy a hand-marked ball on the Internet, make sure you get a certificate of authenticity to accompany it, because someone could mark it themselves and pass it off as a professional player’s ball.

Did you mean, Haskel, Haskill, Spallding, Spaldding, Gregg Normann, Greg Normn, Arnld Pallmer, Arnald Palmer, Adamm Paterson or Adam Patterrson?